This invention relates generally to techniques for attaching bones together and more particularly to techniques using threaded members to attach bones together.
It is frequently necessary to hold fractured or surgically cut bones together until they are healed. While many broken bones are supported externally with casts, splints and the like, it is a common practice to support bones internally using threaded fastening devices. One such fastening device is a threaded wire commonly known as a K-wire or Kirschner wire. Such threaded wires have a sharpened point on at least one end thereof so that the wire drills into the bone as it is rotated with appropriate driving tools while at the same time cutting threads in the bone so that the threads following the sharpened tip can threadedly engage the bone to hold it in position.
One of the problems with such K-wires is that it is difficult to accurately locate the drill point on the K-wire to start penetration of the bone, a relative large incision must be made to gain access to the site and to the path along which the K-wire passes through the tissue around the bone, and a relative large incision is necessary to cut the wire off with a cutting implement after it is installed. Also it is difficult to tell how far in the bone the wire has penetrated. It is also difficult to use the K-wire to increase the clamping force on the fracture or cut over the initial clamp up force applied before the K-wire is installed. As a result using the prior art K-wires has been a tedious and time-consuming operation. Also, the requirement that larger incisions be made resulted in a greater likelihood of infection.